My accountant is in the US as I found their charges were much cheaper than I was quoted in UK even despite a weakening pound. I don't have an attorney but that seems to be relating to a separate issue.
They've told me I can pay by credit card or wire transfer but said wire transfer was not convenient and costly. From reading the IRS website that seems to be because they require a same-day transfer which will rule out TransferWise (the cheapest rate). So it would have to be through the bank. Reading the instructions, it sounds complicated.
I think money order or credit card are the easier options so I just need to weigh up the costs.
In terms of selecting an adviser, as there are no legal requirements to have passed any exams before offering tax advice, the IRS offers a very helpful Directory which lists the only individuals who are qualified to advise on US tax matters; and which can be found here:
http://irs.treasury.gov/rpo/rpo.jsf. I would always recommend that someone in this situation only selects an adviser from those who are qualified to advise on US tax matters and whose names are therefore published by the IRS. The IRS list is an excellent tool that is designed to help check if any adviser or proposed adviser has any tax credentials within the United States.
Most UK based individuals will naturally also want to check that any proposed tax adviser is qualified with at least one professional accounting or tax institution in the UK as well as in the United States so that they know that the adviser is also adequately regulated in the UK. Indeed, more broadly, for most UK based individuals there are often considerable advantages in having a UK based adviser who can jointly advise on both US and UK tax issues and handle both sets of tax returns in the UK.
These include:
1. The client and the adviser being located in the same time zone.
2. Client documents and workpapers being held outside of the United States; which many people perceive as providing additional protection in the event of IRS investigations.
3. Advisers outside of the European Union are unable to offer the protections to clients provided by the UKs Proceeds of Crime Act, which requires all UK tax professionals to be regulated and supervised for anti-money laundering protection purposes. Here in the UK it is a criminal offence to offer tax advice unless the adviser is supervised. Quite unlike within the UK, there is no requirement for mandatory regulation of tax advisers in most of the United States.
5. The fact that although there are roughly one million paid tax professionals within the United States, that there are naturally only very few amongst these who understand enough about the US reporting of foreign based taxpayers.
4. The ability in the unlikely event that things ever go wrong to get issues addressed through a supervisory body that is closer to the client than an adviser located several thousand miles away.
An attorney would be able to assist with questions of non-wilfulness, as well as interpreting the meaning of the IRS streamlined procedures if your adviser is unfamiliar with these.
